The Sound Advice Encyclopedia of Voice-Over & the Business of Being A Working Talent

KATE

I. Preproduction

Preparing to Deliver Your Best

Chapter 1: Going the Distance

"Great works are performed not by strength,

but by perseverance."

—Samuel Johnson

At Sound Advice we’re often asked, What’s it take to go the distance in this business?

There’s no single answer. There are four: pursue, persist, prepare, and promote. These four components are absolutely vital to succeed at ANYTHING, let alone an acting or voice-over career. It’s your responsibility to ensure these elements are continually in play as they are required of you no matter how far along you may be—regardless of whether you are just beginning, or if you have been established and are aiming to raise your game to the next level. They are a constant.

Whatever you accomplish in this business, you’ll succeed only if you pursue it. Nothing will come to you, no matter how much talent you may have. Even with the benefit of nepotism, it’s ultimately up to you to run your career. This is your business and no one else’s. Own it. Opportunities are what you make of them.

You have to set your sights on your immediate goals, and then persist at them, and often beyond what you might first consider a comfortable margin. Additionally, developing and then maintaining your skills requires persistent dedication. This element only increases with success, not the other way around—contrary to what many novices may think.

So, if you find you’re easily frustrated or simply give up after a few months of training or even after only a year or two of promotion, then you may never honestly know for yourself what you could have created without real, long-term persistence.

Preparation means continually developing your abilities, and along with ongoing promotion, this requires patience. Allow yourself to continue to develop your skills. Agility is not naturally intuitive and talent can atrophy with lack of use. It takes attention. Otherwise your skills won’t be sharp when called upon at a moment’s notice, and they will be tested. Without persistence you will serve only to undermine your own confidence. Your confidence is directly related to your integrity as an artist. Regardless of your position, no matter how affluent you may be, no one can afford to lose his or her integrity. Even natural talent will degrade and weaken if not continually honed.

To add to this, your success is contingent on continual and repeated promotion far more than anyone in this business has previously ever lead you to believe. Consider it your staple from this point forward. It’s up to you to drive attention to yourself through your very best promotional efforts. And with that thought in mind, as a rule: never set your sights on securing just one audition, or one big break, or "wait until the time is just right." If so, you will secure only ONE audition, ONE break, and the time will never arrive because you never took the time to properly promote yourself. The time is right when you decide it is, so make that NOW. Make a decision as to what you want in your life and work toward those goals. In doing so you’ll accomplish far more than you ever imagined possible.

Every audition is a form of promotion, yet so many artists repel the idea of promotion that this could easily account for the scores of talented souls who have fallen into oblivion. If you leave your career alone I promise nothing will happen. It will slip through your fingers.

No one who has ever scored an Oscar accepted it saying, This was so easy. I don’t know why you guys don’t all have one. It was a piece of cake!

Nope. Anything worthwhile is accomplished from hard work and lots of it. And a good deal of that work comes from consistent and constant promotion. Consider it as much of your job as the performance itself. This is how we make ourselves known and familiar. Promotion comes with the territory and can’t be ignored if you intend to succeed as a working talent.

The fact remains that talent who persist at promotion, while honing their performance skills, will make themselves known and valuable. What they may lack performance-wise at the onset of their careers will strengthen and develop from experience, but not from a single coaching once every eight to ten months, or a half-hearted promotional blitz once or twice a year.

Those who become consummate professionals make it their business to run their own careers rather than leave it to chance.

However, keep in mind from the moment you decide to commit completely to establish (or further) your career it will seem as if all the forces in the universe will set out to thwart you. Not because you shouldn’t be pursuing this field, but rather the complete and utter opposite. It’s an occupational hazard that will test your mettle at every turn. And while you may be a strong sprinter at the onset of your career, aim to go the distance. It’s far more rewarding if you do.

And even with a thorough road map to follow, as we’ve laid out for you here at Sound Advice, you’re the one who has to dedicate yourself to the task of getting it done. Certainly your odds are far greater with us than without us, but it’s still work and you’re the one who has to do it. No one will give it to you, or create it for you. You can’t purchase it, but you can invest in yourself effectively and prepare to deliver what’s needed and wanted of you so you’re ready at a moment’s notice. And that is extremely rewarding on many, many levels.

So, when you find yourself losing patience, and no doubt everyone does in every small business from time to time, rather than dwell on being frustrated, put your attention into your pursuits, in your preparation, and in your promotion. There’s always something you could be doing RIGHT NOW to forward your goals.

In other words, just do it! And procrastinate tomorrow.

Chapter 2: FAQs and Myths

Truth is stranger than fiction.

—Mark Twain

1. What exactly is a voice-over?

A voice-over is when you hear only the voice on any form of production but you don’t see the actor who’s speaking. A radio commercial is a voice-over. The narration on any film, stage, TV show, commercial, animation, Web site, phone prompt, promo, movie trailer (you name it) is a voice-over. A voice-over is anytime you hear only the voice of the actor.

2. What is a voice-over demo?

A voice-over demo is a professional representation of the work you do best and what you want MORE of. This is how it will read to every professional source that listens to your tracks, so it better be up to the task. They will assume that you feel your demo is the very best you can do. So if it’s not, that’s a problem.

A demo is a handful of well-produced pieces that define your contribution to that specific genre or style of the voice-over industry: commercial, narration, animation, promo, or Spanish.

There are essentially five separate and distinct demos geared specifically to service five very different areas of voice-over work, which we cover in detail during our one-on-one Orientation.

We can deliver this service via video conferencing (Skype), or in person. Check out www.voiceoverinfo.com for more information.

There are specific standards required of each demo genre designed to accommodate the needs of the producers for these styles. The object of the demo is to take the guesswork out of the equation in order to make hiring you an easier task.

No matter the genre, most producers are looking to cast talent who sound conversational, professional, and honest. In other words, they want you to sound like yourself.

To hear examples of our demos, visit our Sound Advice Web site at: www.voiceoverinfo.com.

3. Why do I need a voice-over demo?

Well, frankly, you can’t get voice-over work without one. Much like if you don’t have a headshot and résumé, you can’t secure on-camera work.

You need a demo to get a talent agent and to promote yourself to copywriters and producers at advertising agencies (known as ad creatives) and to anyone else who produces work that requires a voice-over.

It could be you have a friend or family member who offers you the occasional opportunity to do a job or two prior to having a demo. That’s fortunate, but if you hope to continue in this business you’ll certainly need one.

The whole idea of having a demo is to take the guesswork out of the casting equation. Once we’ve listened to your demo we should have a very clear idea of what sort of work you’re best suited to deliver and most likely to land, what you actually sound like, and how you animate the text.

In short, the best definition of a demo is: a professional demonstration of what it is you do best and what you want MORE of.

4. Can’t I just get a makeshift demo to start me off?

This is probably the greatest misconception novice talent have with regard to this industry.

I’ll get a good demo later.

Problem is: Your demo is your professional calling card.

The fact is, you cannot secure a proper talent agent (and therefore regular auditions or steady voice-over work) without a professional demo. Pure and simple.

If you promote a half-baked demo, that is precisely how any professional contact will view the best you can do.

The cheap imitation demo you submitted will speak to your level of commitment, putting your professionalism at risk. The recipient can only deduce that you feel this is the best representation of your very best abilities.

Talent agents, casting directors, and producers must use your demo to submit you for projects. It’s a direct reflection on them if they submit less than reputable options; it lowers their professional status with people who are counting on them.

You have to consider who is receiving your demo. For instance, the audience for your commercial demo (the standard demo track required of every voice talent), is made up chiefly of advertising creatives. Creatives don’t understand why you would create a representation of your work that was anything less than professional. It wastes everyone’s time. And yet the industry is flooded with them.

Keep in mind your demos are auditioning for you in your absence better than 98 percent of the time. It speaks volumes to your aesthetic level, your skill, and your understanding of what’s expected of you as a professional.

Granted, you may be just starting out in this field, nevertheless you are still held to the very same professional standards as everyone else. There is no beginner, intermediate, and advanced job out there. Each job is considered to be as professional as the last. Every client you voice a project for expects the top of your game, the top of your profession, regardless of whether the job is union. You’re expected to consistently offer the very best of your abilities—always. And this standard begins with your demo tracks.

So, if you create a cheap, thrown-together, single-recording-session demo, mixed inside an hour or two, you will have just thrown away $850; $1,750; $3,000 or whatever you happened to spend on it. If the spots on your demo don’t sound like actual, well-produced national television spots, you will not be considered for any work, and thereby miss the opportunity to land work first in advance of investing in a proper demo as you had originally intended.

The fact is you can’t land voice-over work with a poor example of what it is you do best.

5. How much does a demo cost?

This is the single hardest question to answer regarding the subject of voice-over. It depends on so many factors and variables, such as:

- Are you a complete novice?

- Are you a relatively seasoned actor, but voice-over is a new medium to you?

- How much training or career guidance will you need to focus your efforts most effectively?

- Do you have an agent? Does he specialize in voice- over?

- Are you planning on promoting your demo?

- How current is your knowledge of the business and what’s required of you?

- Are you technically inclined and able to record auditions from home?

- If you’re a well-established talent, do you have an effective game plan to secure work?

- How many demos are you planning to tweak or have produced?

These and numerous other specific elements all factor in to what it will take to produce your demos. At Sound Advice we prefer to approach each talent individually and custom tailor their demos according to an overall promotional plan.

If you shop around, you’re likely to hear demos range in cost anywhere from $850 to upwards of $10,000 per track, which can only add to your confusion. Rates can vary widely so you have to consider what you’re getting for your investment.

The fact is you need to approach this business as a start-up.

According to business consultant and author, Steve Blank, "A start-up is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."

And, A business model describes how your company creates, delivers, and captures value.

In other words, you need a game plan to run your voice-over/acting business as a small business based on what you’re trying to achieve. Namely, a realistic timeline in relation to the amount of effort you invest with relation to: your product, your performance, your promotion, your demos, auditions, your demo Web page, and postcards.

The cost of your demo must reflect what you’re getting for your money and what you’re trying to accomplish. So when determining rates among demo producers, do your best to avoid back-tracking by enlisting the most-cutting edge, up-to-date, full-service, and supportive options, otherwise you’ll only frustrate yourself and push your career goals further from your reach.

6. I'm a pro. I want to stay on top of this business and its continual changes. What do you suggest I do first?

Even if you have been working and training as a professional for a number of years, you may be harboring outdated or flat-out incorrect information with regard to your career and how to navigate it.

If you were once doing well and you’re not anymore, there may be a few simple adjustments you need to employ to turn your career around, provided you’re willing to confront them.

If you’re doing well and want to increase your efforts, even better! Successful people never sit back and let it rest if they intend to maintain their success.

This is an extremely kinetic, ever-changing industry and what held true two years ago has already changed dramatically and may not be the case in today’s market. All the more reason why so many seasoned voice-over vets benefit from our Sound Advice one-on-one Orientation. The information we impart to you is ahead of the curve, given our unique vantage point as industry professionals, producers, and casting directors.

7. Will you tell me if I can’t do this?

There are plenty of people of varying degrees of expertise who are more than happy to quickly tell you you can’t—sight unseen, without ever testing your mettle.

At Sound Advice, we’ll tell you if you’re not applying yourself. We’ll let you know what you should be doing and how to apply yourself in nearly any situation in this field.

We’ll even back you up and be there for you many years after we’ve trained you and produced your tracks. We’re in this for the long haul and expect you are too. In fact, if we invite you to do a demo it’s because we believe in you and that you will take what you’ve learned from us and run with it. If we produce your demo tracks, in many respects we are endorsing you, so we want you to represent us well. That’s vitally important to us, because this is precisely how it reads to the industry and to our professional colleagues.

But, if you’re asking, Will we tell you whether or not you can join this ‘very exclusive club called voice-over’? No, we will not.

NO ONE has the right to tell you whether you can or cannot have a career in this business—or any other for that matter! It’s elitist. And, to be perfectly honest, you don’t have to take that form of browbeating from anyone. Ever. Nor should you.

Granted, a great many people are not all that forthcoming with information in this industry, they hold their cards very tight to their chest. It could be they’re afraid you may discover how little they actually know about the subject. Or maybe they view you as a threat to their livelihood. Perhaps they are under the misconception that there is not enough work to go around and you might cut in on their business. To add to this, these individuals may not know as much as you know after simply reading this book or taking our Sound Advice one-on-one Orientation.

Frankly, there’s plenty of room in this industry for everyone—provided you’re trained and prepared to deliver your best. There’s been more than a 900 percent increase in the amount of voice-over being produced annually than there has been in years past. This can easily be attributed to the rapid expansion and melding of media through Netflix, Hulu+, the relatively recent addition of more than 2,000 standard channels available on cable, on the Internet, games, animation, commercial and corporate demands, and assorted new media is now considered commonplace in the entertainment industry—all of which require voice-over of some form or another.

Besides the fact, no one does what you do quite the way you do it!

8. What do I need to get started in voice-over?

Besides objective training to continually develop your skills and confidence, you’ll need a professional support system to back you up, some sense of what your job as a professional entails, and, of course, well-produced demos that best represents you.

You need at least one talent agent who specializes in voice-over, who has a good idea of what it is you bring to the table, and, most importantly, who is willing to include you regularly on auditions.

You’ll need a flexible work schedule that allows you the freedom to audition and book jobs during standard business hours. (We suggest you maintain your day job until you’re making at least three times more than what you’re making now to support yourself.)

You’ll need professional, well-designed graphics that are smart enough to draw the interest of industry professionals to listen to you and your demos.

You’ll need a single-page Web site devoted solely to your voice-over work where your demos can be heard. You’ll need postcards to broadly promote your site, thereby broadly promoting your demos.

But, most of all, you’ll need tenacity and a real commitment to continue to develop your skills and promote yourself and your demos. Just like developing your performance skills, promotion never goes away. These are a constant if you intend to work. You get out of your career whatever you put into it.

At Sound Advice, we custom-tailor coaching packages, which we deliver either in person in either one of our studios, or via video conferencing (Skype).

9. Can I do voice-over part-time?

Sure, if you happen to know a producer who has enough work to keep you so busy they want your voice on absolutely everything and they do nothing but national spots for a variety of major market products or services.

The fact is, part-time for any other business is 20 hours a week. If you were to dedicate ten hours a week to working your skills and another ten hours to promoting your demos, you stand a far greater chance to becoming a full-time working talent. But that means you absolutely must put in the hours!

So, dedicate yourself to working on your career for no less than 20 hours a week. Or part time, if you will.

If you’re only just starting out, positioning and prepping yourself for what the job takes to be a working talent requires at the very least 10 to 20 hours a week. This is how you become a professional. It takes commitment.

Becoming a steady, working talent takes a great deal of persistence, just like any other small start-up business. That’s realistic, and from our experience, incredibly effective.

10. Is it realistic to consider my acting career as a start-up or small business?

Not only is it realistic—at Sound Advice we absolutely insist on it. While you’re expected to be skilled enough to simply play during the session, every other aspect of this business demands you approach it as a proper profession.

Our intention is to give you the greatest opportunity to study this field by giving you step-by-step training and specific advice when it comes to establishing yourself as freelance working talent.

11. Do I have to have acting experience to pursue voice-over?

No, you don’t. Stage work or improvisation is not the high watermark for whether you will book work in film, TV, or voice-over. There are scores of successful stars who can back that up.

Would it help? Absolutely, because it allows you to tell a story, use your imagination, develop a character, and establish a viewpoint other than your own. All of these attributes are vital to performing in any medium.

12. To do voice-over I need to be able to do character voices and dialects, right?

Not really. Most of the work available honestly doesn’t typically call for you to sound like anyone other than yourself.

In fact, having random character voices and phony accents featured on your demo is considered unprofessional as a whole for the simple reason it sounds amateurish. Maybe one in 30,000 spots are specifically for a French guy or a German guy. Even then they are more likely to hire someone who actually is French or German or what have you. So, do not waste the time on your demo.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should stop playing or creating original characters. It’s just that what’s the most marketable is you being YOU!

If you happen to speak French, German, or another language fluently, then sure, a little of that further in on the demo is totally appropriate depending on the demo you’re producing. But never lead with it in the first 30 to 40 seconds unless it’s your native tongue for a standard commercial track in English.

C’est si bon!

For examples of what extremely marketable demos sound like, visit our demos page at www.voiceoverinfo.com and hear for yourself.

13. But, I have all these character voices I do. Everyone says I should be making millions. Right?

If you truly have something you can do repeatedly (without hurting yourself and others), that is original, then an animation demo is in order.

A commercial demo, however, is what’s required of every talent first and foremost and that means more affects than accents.

Commercially you’ll be hired for more mainstream work first, due to the fact that it’s the bulk of what’s out there. That doesn’t mean the straighter stuff lacks wit or is without imagination in any way. It’s just that most commercial work doesn’t tend to call for out-and-out cartoon-y characters, which is precisely why you shouldn’t feature these characters unless the demo is geared specifically for animation.

None of this should squelch your character work—these things are not without merit. Just don’t limit yourself to continually being someone other than yourself.

The objective of your demo is to define who you are and how you are perceived in a major market.

An animation demo is a specialized thing. It’s honestly not for everybody and usually reliant on where you live to glean the greatest return.

Generally, for commercial work and games, if they want a character, they will listen to your tracks and then call you in to audition for it.

As far as impersonations go, as remarkable as they can be—they are not the first things you want to open with either, I’m afraid. In fact, if that’s all you do the field is rather limited.

If you’re predominantly a character actor it’s perfectly appropriate to blend humor and personality-driven material with the straighter, more mainstream commercial deliveries that dominate this work. Pepper gingerly with character affects. Easy does it. It’s a balancing act.

14. What does a talent agent do? Do I really need one?

The talent agent submits you and is the primary liaison between you and the work. They know what a job is worth and are there to negotiate or broker a deal between you, the talent, and the client who needs your services.

This is the most thankless job in the business, yet vital to your bottom line as a working talent.

Question is: Does your agent get called for auditions and work that match your career goals and your type? Is the work appropriate to what you’d successfully land?

(Refer to Chapter 18, How to Get an Agent, for more detail on what an agent does, what you can expect from him, and what he expects from you.)

15. How do I get a talent agent?

At Sound Advice we have an extensive game plan that has met with a great deal of success for every talent who has utilized it fully.

(See details in Chapter 18, How to Get an Agent.)

16. Why do I have to promote my demo? Isn’t that my agent’s job?

Maybe you’re one of those people who repeats this mantra everyday: I hate promoting myself. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Besides, I have no idea how to go about it. (Hmm. Maybe that’s why you hate it.)

Maybe you think someone else is supposed to handle all your promotion. If you do you will be abandoning your career to those with less heart and drive than you do!

Or maybe you consider promoting yourself to be boastful and therefore embarrassing. Or you don’t want to be a pest. Get over it! It’s an excuse! You’re avoiding what needs to be done if you’re going to work at all in this business.

This is a business basic: If you consistently promote yourself and persist at it—you’re going to work. You may not start out as the most talented guy in the room but your ability will increase with continually exposing yourself to the auditions and the work until finally you’re cornering the market on whatever it is you do best!

However, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. If you already have a demo and you’re not promoting it, check out Chapter 19, How to Get Work, for more details about our incredibly effective, continually updated mailing lists and detailed marketing plan designed to maximize your efforts.

17. How do you know when you need a new demo?

If you have a professionally produced demo but you haven’t landed a proper agent or are working steadily, then consider the following before completely throwing the baby out with the bath water:

- Does your old demo run almost two minutes (or more)?

- Do your agents handle much voice-over?

- Have you sent out repeated promotional mailings to producers and potential clients for at least two years? If not, then you really have no idea whether the demo works for you.

- Has it been four years or more since you last updated your demos? Depending on your age range and the changes in the market, you may need to tweak an otherwise effective demo.

- Do some of the spots on your demo sound like fake commercials rather than actual national spots?

- Have you landed a few good national television spots that you could add to your current demos?

- Does your demo sound great to you, but your graphics aren’t professional? (See Chapter 15, Graphics.)

Take a listen to some of the demos featured on our demos page. Does your demo compare to the level of professional production heard there? If not, you’re not even in the ballpark, and it’s time to professionally upgrade your demo.

If any of these questions apply to you, contact Sound Advice to make the world right again. Give us a call in either location for more help: 773.772.9539 or 323.464.0990.

18. Can and should I get talent agents in various regions?

While there are numerous online options today that offer small, random jobs to those just getting started, if you intend to make a career out of voice-over you’ll need a talent agent who can offer you work that best suits you as a professional.

Fortunately today it’s possible to secure representation from a variety of talent agencies in numerous regions throughout the country, if:

- Your demos are competitive

- You can audition from home

- You continually promote yourself

- You keep yourself open to auditions, and

- You keep your skills sharp!

(See Chapter 18, How to Get an Agent, for the process to secure representation.)

19. Do I need a headshot to land voice-over?

No, you need a headshot to land stage and on-camera work, such as commercials, film, and television.

In fact, we’ve found it far more effective in voice-over to avoid promoting your demos with a headshot entirely! Those likely to hire you would much rather imagine what you look like than actually see what you look like.

Further, if your headshot is not up to date, or is a poor or inaccurate representation of you (which sadly is too often the case for far too many talent) you’ll being doing yourself this added disservice.

Celebrities, young adults under 15, and mature adults over 70 are possibly the exception here, but even in these cases—it’s not necessary to ever have a headshot for voice-over.

Again, the objective of the voice-over demo is to let us imagine who you are and what you are talking about more anything else. Overshadowing that objective undermines the effectiveness of the demo tracks.

At Sound Advice, we strongly suggest you keep your on-camera promotion separate from your voice-over. You have distinctly different missions with each of these career aims.

That said, our statistics have found that talent agents and managers who would represent you for both on-camera as well as voice-over will have a greater understanding of your commercial aesthetic, professionalism, and skill if they listen to your demo tracks when considering you for representation. Our Sound Advice clients are more likely to increase their on-camera work with the presentation of demos produced with Sound Advice by a significant margin (greater than 40 percent).

But the opposite, having headshots to promote the demo, unfortunately, has the counter effect.

We equate to seeing what the actor really looked like who voiced Fred Flintstone. Unless you actually knew the fellow, it’s something of a buzz kill. You want to be left imagining the cartoon character, not the man himself.

(See Chapter 17, Headshots and Résumés.)

20. Will a casting agency represent me?

No, casting directors are hired by ad agencies, production companies, independent directors, and producers to cast work. They don’t represent talent. Talent agents and managers do.

Casting directors hold auditions for animation, games, film, TV, commercials, etc., but generally they are paid to bring in the talent that most effectively meets the demands of the production or project.

(See Chapter 18, How to Get an Agent, for more details.)

21. How do you get paid if you’re nonunion and you did the job from your home recording studio?

As a nonunion talent, you will be hired, on occasion, by your smaller-market agent or local vendor to voice random work such as in-house tutorials, training films, brief Web promotions, etc.

At Sound Advice, we urge you always to work through an agent in order to keep the work you do above board and, whenever possible, to ensure a proper pay rate.

However, today, due to the advent and rampant use of the Internet as a resource for chop-shop voice-over work, many talent have become one-stop shops. That is to say, talent have put themselves in the position of negotiating their own rate (often when they have little if any idea what the project is truly worth), and acting as recording engineer (utilizing their home recording setup and skills), and bookkeeper as well as voice-over.

While we don’t encourage this, the fact it exists in the marketplace today can’t be denied. Has quality and professionalism suffered for it? Yes, without question.

Nevertheless, should you find yourself in this position early on in your career, keep in mind you are setting a precedent with any client when you establish a rate with them at the start, and there’s no real turning back. But if you want to ensure payment, it’s always best to have the client pay half up front, through a PayPal account you’ve set up for yourself, and then the balance upon delivery.

Even if the client is a friend, we urge you to keep this policy. Otherwise you may find you did the work of five people at bargain-basement prices, and your efforts will remain uncompensated.

Treat this business as a business, and concentrate your efforts on becoming a voice-over, rather than a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, which sadly has become the state of our industry to great extent.

22. How much time should I expect it to dedicate to this before my career to gets off the ground?

At Sound Advice, we encourage you to treat your work as professional talent as a start-up business. It’s a well-known fact that starting any small business requires you dedicate a minimum of three full years to establishing yourself. It’s no different with this profession.

We suggest you start out by committing yourself to this work like it’s a part-time job. If you dedicate a minimum of 20 hours a week into your career, what’s considered part time by any other business, you will stand a greater chance of working FULL time as a working talent. So, by all means—make it your aim to work part time as a voice-over.

Refer to Chapter 13, What’s Expected of You as a Talent, to follow the series of actions to take whether you are beginning or experienced. They are listed in groups of weekly targets in order to help you accomplish your professional goals and include vocal warm-ups, promotion, coaching, and much more.

23. I’m not all that computer savvy. Will that hurt me as a voice-over?

To land work as a professional talent today, whether you’re in voice-over, or any other industry for that matter—you do have to have some command of technology in order to keep in step with current professional standards and demands, otherwise you run the risk of your talents dying with you, left completely unattainable, unacknowledged or severely under utilized. Therefore, if technology is not your forte, you MUST then ally yourself with trusted, reliable options familiar with the specific demands of the acting profession, especially voice-over.

While we are not Web or IT consultants at Sound Advice, we confidently recommend Web site marketing partner, Ron Martin.

He can assist you regardless of your location (or his), provided you have a computer and high-speed Internet access.

Then again, you could enlist the tech skills of your very talented 15-year-old son or your tech-savvy 32-year-old niece. However, they (and therefore YOU) are missing some critical info that will save you a great deal of time, money, and effort when it comes to this industry.

Therefore, we suggest you leave it to the professionals, especially Ron.

(See Chapter 7, Advancing Technology, for more info.)

24. Do I have to have a home recording studio to successfully land steady voice-over work?

It doesn’t hurt! In fact, you open yourself up to a great deal more opportunities nationwide, if not internationally, as a voice-over.

That said, if you’re not all that tech-savvy to begin with—we suggest you concentrate efforts on being a talent, first and foremost! Get at least eight months to a year under your belt and then branch out into recording your auditions from home.

Regardless of your background with recording auditions or even actual sessions from home, at Sound Advice we can’t recommend Erik Martin of HomeRecordingStudioDesign.com enough!

Erik is the PRO’s Pro, yet approachable, affordable, and experienced enough to understand what you need as you need it. He makes life EASY for every strata of voice-over. And that makes it far easier for you to land a greater volume of work from a greater variety of sources! GENIUS!!

Regardless of your location, HomeRecordingStudioDesign.com offers personalized service for every strata of home-recording assistance, through online video tutorials, as well as support as technology changes and your skills improve.

(To be sure to you know what to ask Erik, check out Chapter 7, Advancing Technology, ahead of time.)

25. How much do you get paid?

There’s really no short answer for this question, but we’ll do our best to narrow the field for you, because your rate of pay varies widely from job to job, and whether the project is a union job or not.

There are a variety of factors that play into the equation, such as whether the job is a commercial voice-over or for on-camera. Whether the job is for television or film, union or nonunion, broadcast or nonbroadcast, aired in a major metropolis or more rural location. The amount of reuse or repetition of airplay (which incurs residual pay if it is a union job) further plays a vital role as to what the project is worth.

If the job is a nonunion, regional radio spot, it’s likely to be a buyout. This means there is one set fee paid for the job, and the talent will not see residual payment for repeat airings (like you would for union work). Internet jobs are always buyouts, regardless of whether they are union or not. They run anywhere from $1,500 on the low end to the multiple thousands of dollars depending on the length of their agreed usage.

For a nonunion, regional buyout you’re likely to be paid anywhere between $150 and $550, whether the voice-over is for broadcast or not. However, since the job is nonunion, you’re likely to get paid whatever fee you may have agreed upon in advance.

(See Chapter 20, How Union Work Works.)

26. How many auditions can I expect it to take before I start landing work?

It varies dramatically from one talent to the next and depends on whether you are doing whatever you can to make yourself available to the work that suits you best. Even if you are doing everything right, it may take, and often does, as many as 200 to 300 auditions before you ever land a job.

Then again, you may take off like a rocket and begin to work steady after only one or two auditions. It’s not common or very likely, but it can happen.

We’ve discovered most talent generally harbor the mis- conception that it should take no more than five or six auditions to book your first job, then they expect to book every other audition from there on out for the rest of their career. Wonderful thought, but mathematically, this is a gross improbability.

The fact is, auditioning regularly is half the job of being a working talent. The more you audition, the more likely you will secure steady work for yourself.

Auditions are your greatest promotion, provided they are not your sole form of promotion. If so, you’ll ultimately find you have fewer and fewer auditions and therefore fewer and fewer opportunities to work.

Here’s the thing: If you’re easily frustrated or far too impatient and rely solely on one to two auditions a month, then it could and probably will take from now until doomsday for you to begin to work steady.

Auditioning alone requires skills that must be mastered and continually developed. The more you drill them, the better off you’ll be.

Go into every audition like you’re already booked on the job—deliver a finished performance. Then once you’ve delivered the best audition you’re capable of—MOVE ON! Put it behind you. Stop counting the jobs you didn’t get and start figuring out your next promotional blitz and to whom.

At Sound Advice, we offer a service called Practice Auditions to allow you the opportunity to keep your audition skills sharp, while developing your home-editing ability! Check our site for more details: www.voiceoverinfo.com

27. Is there such a thing as an overnight success?

I have to say I’ve seen a number of people happen into the honey pot relatively overnight. Of course, a number of elements clearly played a part in such rocket rides including: timing, skill, a terrific willingness to take a risk, a very astute talent agent, and personally knowing the individuals who hired